Battlefield 4: Why Being a Sniper is Not Worth It

Normally, in FPS games the sniper related role is one of the most powerful classes in game, however in Battlefield 4 things are quite different. If in real life, snipers are cunning and lethal, in Battlefield 4 they’re fragile and flimsy. The recons, known as the former sniper class of the series, mainly use sniper rifles, shotguns and SMGs and they can be played in many ways, nonetheless its main purpose is to allow players to become true snipers and shoot enemies from great distances. That sounds just fine but this concept didn’t get the best representation in game. Being a sniper is one of the hardest specializations in Battlefield 4 and it can be a real headache sometimes. Among numerous issues like extreme exposure, frequent vulnerability and low damage, the recons need to think twice before going full sniper mode – that is if they actually want to have more kills than deaths. Let’s take a deeper look at why being a sniper in Battlefield 4 is not really worth it.

1. Exposure

Shooting from far distances may sound safe but it’s not that simple. Snipers normally need to find a good positioning at strategic points but unless they can find the perfect spot, things will most likely go wrong. And even if players can actually find a really good spot, enemies will notice the shooter and try to reach him/her somehow. Basically, what I’m trying to say is that in a dynamic game like Battlefield 4, finding strategic points is extremely hard simply because you have to keep moving constantly or you’re a dead man. And let’s be honest, these kind of points can’t be found everywhere. So, even if you found you perfect spot, forget it… it soon won’t be, you just need to fight some smart enemies and your fun will be over before you know it.

2. Vulnerability

Alright, so the bad thing about shooting far targets is that you need to focus and aim firmly at that little dot far in the horizon, now that requires huge amounts of concentration, which will make you extremely vulnerable to all kind of treats, including enemy players that may be approaching you and incoming explosives. Besides that, when you try to aim as a sniper it normally takes longer to shoot compared to close combat and as so, there’s a great chance that enemy soldiers will try to take you down.

3. Accuracy & Damage

Recons have the highest damage in game, I mean their weapons do. Sniper rifles have the highest damage input in Battlefield 4, however it’s still not enough to one shoot enemies most of the time. To successfully eliminate a target with one shoot, you need to aim for a headshot and that’s not so easy when you’re a sniper surrounded by enemies. Also, do not forget that the accuracy rates decrease with distance, so the further away you are from your target the hardest is to hit a spot. Moreover, your accuracy doesn’t just depend on your shoot; it depends on the target’s movements as well.

4. Close Combat

It’s well known that recons are not the best for close combat, in fact if players want to assume that role in the team they’ll most likely pick another class. Recons are a pure defensive class with a few offensive options but their specialization is at detecting enemy presence and eliminating targets while keeping a great distance. Once in close combat, recons are usually in disadvantage and end up dying faster than other roles.

5. Vehicles

Even though recons can use tools to detect vehicles, they can hardly take them down. I know there’s a class whose main purpose is to kill vehicles but still, it’s a prodigious drawback. Other classes can use explosives at least but for recons, destroying helicopters or tanks is basically impossible. Sniper rifles were made to kill people and they’re not so efficient against metal.

To be an efficient recon, you need to be really good, really smart or have an intense passion for the role, if not then you’ll die countless times and your contribution to the team won’t be that reasonable.

11 COMMENTS

sounds like you’re just not very good at it…there are plenty of people out there that can rack up kills with a sniper while playing an important role in a squad painting targets for their engineers and spotting enemies for their infantry squadmates…not to mention that the netcode its terrible at the moment for both pc’s and consoles,so wait until those issues get fixed and have a try at it again

Just like the other comments say – you probably just suck at sniping. I don’t know about you but there’s nothing more rewarding than getting a 500 m headshot first try. This is one of the best sniper games to ever exist.

Have to agree with the others above, the Recon class is amazing and easy to use for everyone. That’s half the benefit of it, more and more incompetent players will try and match up with people who are actually good at it and make for easy targets. Personally I think the Assault class is the weakest on the game, unless you’re running with friends it’s worthless on Conquest.

I agree that beeing s sniper is hard in BF 4 but not really because of the points mentioned because they are a snipers normal buisness ( finding good spots staying low etc) BUT BF 4 says fu** you to snipers because of one BIg reason : Snipers are way to UP in terms of muzzle velocity and DMG. When you compare the sniper stats of BF to actual Sniper calibres you find that the muzzle velocity is sometimes 1/2 of the real one meaning that it takes double the time for the bullet to travel that distance, so you have to lead your target in a ridicilous way to hit it. The Dmg is also not the best compared to other games where snipers are feared for there oneshot weapons.
And even worse servers who kick or kill you for beeing a sniper i mean why? I cna barely udnerstand weapon bans but banning a hole class?

I have to say that sniping can become easy like it is to me but I am a professional so I have advantage because you need to get used to the sniper rifles by that I mean the bullet drop and damage at ranges the best snipers to get used to are CS-LR4, M40A5,M98B and finaly the SRR-61.As one of the best sniper players make it enjoyable so play with friends and have awesome kill streaks together better go with the flow by that I mean if your sniping go where the action is get involved or let it come to you but choose a good spot help your team by spotting enemy players or taking down every threat you see , become stronger and better. Use what up you prefer be comfortable if you think your good. Become a better assult, support or engernier stay with what you want same goes with every other game. Hope this helped

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